Echoes in the Gangway: A Catholic Boy's Trek Through the Fifties • Memories of My Family and St. Leo Parish
About this ebook
This warm and funny memoir follows the author from age eight through high school and just beyond. Humorous stories describe life in a family headed by a devoted blue-collar dad and a protective homebody mom. Outnumbered by brothers, two sisters stand up for themselves with admirable pluck. They take piano lessons and win music medals. The boys make forts and push carts and enough trouble to merit occasional lickings from dads belt. There are sibling rivalries, issues at school and fistfights with kids on the way home.
Long bike rides and flights downtown on the El train provide escape for the growing brothers. Most things have a funny side, even algebra and jug. Touch football games, chats in the gangway and crushes on unsuspecting girls fill the authors passing days. Much that seemed crucial in 1958 looks comical a half century later.
About the author
Joe Murphy worked as a scriptwriter, copywriter and media producer for Chicago companies and ad agencies. Days spent writing commercials often stretched into nights of teaching radio classes or dreaming up greeting card lines. Now retired, Joe resides in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife Mary. He enjoys writing and editing scripts for a local radio theater group.
